Q&A with Quonus10

[WARNING: This post may contain spoilers]

Today we are speaking with Quonus10. He is the author of Second Shot and An Old Debt.

Q. Tell me a little bit about yourself

Gads, I always hate these ‘tell me about you’ questions. I’m 46, partnered – hope to be married soon, just working out the details and stuff – for almost 16 years; we are working to have a child with a surrogate to go with our two dogs. Work wise I’m a prosecutor, In my spare time aside from reading and writing, I’m a sports junkie, I love baseball and soccer/football, I referee soccer/football, used to play gay softball, might play again this year, prefer to go to sports games rather than watch on TV, but sports are about the only thing I watch on TV. In the realm of weird, I like to cook, but don’t really enjoying eating – I mean I eat, but I am not a foodie. Oh, I do love me my coffee; black, no sugar.

Q. What inspires you to write?

My partner is who inspired me to write – he knew I always wanted to do it so he pushed me to start and stick with it. Now I suppose I write because once I start something, I want to see it finished. And to add in a touch of my vanity – I enjoy seeing comments where people tell me they liked what I wrote. That is a bit intoxicating, if I am being honest.

Q. What are your favourite books?

You wouldn’t know it from what I have written so far, my favorite books are fantasy/swords and sorcerers type novels. My Favorite books would be LOTR, Donaldson’s, Chronicles of Stephen Covenant and the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackney.

Q. What is the most thoughtful feedback you have received from a reader?

Honestly the most thoughtful feedback is hard to pick – because almost to a tee it has been positive. I think that when I see people say they can feel the characters, that makes me smile. To me that is what brings a story to life for me, feeling and caring about the characters. That is what helps bind you to the story. But I don’t want to single out anyone in particular because I have more than a few people have said it and I don’t want to leave anyone out.

Q. Do your characters represent anyone in your life?

None of my character represents anyone specifically – but there are traits in most from real people – for example – I played soccer in high school, but didn’t make the college team so perhaps Jason is an extension of what I wished for myself. Peter might be another character who I wished I knew – martial arts always fascinated me and it wasn’t til I was in my 40’s that I found the time and money to take them. In a short story I wrote, I did have the image of a friend in mind for what the character looked like, but her personality was similar to my sister’s – which was not a bad thing haha. Of course that character was only mentioned – in a bit of detail perhaps – but you didn’t meet her. Perhaps the closest thing to a character representing anyone would be the Coach in Second Shot – he looks and acts a bit like my high school coach – the ‘this is my team we do it my way’ attitude was totally what my coach used to tell us. But most of his emotions and actions were made up.

Q. What’s your favourite cereal?

Favorite cereal? Hmm, well it’s this organic granola that is made not far from my house that you can only get in a few places – it has dried Cherries and chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. All I know it is it sold in small brown bags – don’t ask me it’s name – sad eh??

Q. How do they get the caramilk into the caramilk bar?

Okay so I cheated on this one and went on line and found a video on how it is made – seriously? As a Yank, I never heard of this – but after finding it, I might need to go buy some. The real answer is interesting, but had this been before the age of Google, I would have said it is a secret held close to the vest, locked in the same vault with Colonel Sanders Secret recipe of herbs and spices. Which means, I had no earthly clue.

8. What do you think of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer?

Never read Twilight , never saw the movies, and honestly after all the ‘team this dude,’ ‘Team that dude’ I have less desire to read it or see the movies. But since the question was what do I think of it, the answer would be she did a good job of finding and keeping her readers and entertaining them, so go Stephanie.

9. Tell us a little about Second Shot?

Hmm shameless plus? Well Second Shot short of morphed from what it began as – a short story, into the full on story. I actually wrote the chapters that I am posting now, 25, 26 and beyond were part of the short story, the first 24 were written well after these. Jason is closeted member of his College Soccer team. Everything is under control until he runs into – literally – Peter. Peter is independent, self confident, and out. Despite misgivings, Jason decides to take a chance and date Peter. Then it all falls apart when he accidentally outs himself to a supposed good friend. Mom, doesn’t take it well and things sort of spiral from there. I don’t want to give away too much since the ending is still not posted, but things get complicated after the same ex-friend arranges to have Peter beaten into a coma. From there . . . Well you and everyone else is going to have to read it to find out how it ends.

10. Is there another gay online author to whom you look up to, and if so, why?

I would say there are several – I admire several – I think Cia and Nephylim are not only great story tellers and authors, but they are wonderful at helping others – me included – with their encouragement and assistance. I think Forty-two’s work is brilliant – he has such good feel story telling and dialague. And I think Nightowl88 is really talented at giving us an in-depth look at what his characters are feeling. But, I think the person I admire most – and not because she gave me a shout out – is Anyta Sunday. When I first arrived, she took the time to offer me some frank, but very helpful grammatical advice/critique. From there it morphed into tossing ideas back and forth. She has this amazing gift to makes us a part of her stories. I think (In)Visible was – I don’t know the right words, but, wonderful comes to mind. Her writing drew me and had me emotionally attached to Rune in a way few authors have done. She has been my confident and beta reader and she has taught me a great deal on what makes for better writing.

Q. Is Second Shot intended one book, or will there be a sequel?

Second Shot is one and done – there is no sequel. I am working on a four book fantasy story – that I am three books into the rough draft, but Sec. Shot has no sequel, not sure it would be interesting enough for that.

Q. If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?

A million dollars hmm, I am not going to say anything altruistic – I would be completely selfish and I would use it to have kids – we are in the process of having one – and because of the cost we will probably have to stop at that. So I would use it to either adopt or use another surrogate and have three kids and then fund their education with the rest.

Q. What is on your favourite iPod play list?

Favorite iPod play list – is a bunch of upbeat – mostly punk and alternative songs with the occasional heavy metal or pop song tossed in.

Q. Tell me a little bit about what it is you do for a living.

I am a prosecutor. I do mostly juvenile gun and gang cases. I suppose I try about 20-30 cases a year, depending on the year. I enjoy it but there are times I wish I did something less hectic.

Q. When do you feel most out of your comfort zone?

Surprisingly, for someone who makes a living standing up and talking to strangers, I am most out of sorts in social settings where I don’t know many people. I am not very good at introducing myself to people. Thank god my partner spoke to me first, I am not sure I would have said anything to him, I didn’t think he would be interested.

Q. Does anyone in your every-day life know that you write?

Yes. Aside from the Partner, my cousins know – they are starting their own editing service, so I told them, my two best friends and a co-worker.

Q. What are the top 5 reasons you started writing specifically gay stories, when there are several other kinds of stories to write?

Not sure I set out to write a gay themed story at the start – when I started the fantasy story, I just thought well, why not – so that is #1, #2 I think I understand the emotions better than a straight relationship, #3 if the MC is a gay male, I can easier write him. Those last two are variations on the ‘stick to what you know best’ idea. I really don’t have any others. Sorry.

Q. If you could work with any author who would it be?

Can I pick two?? Merecedes Lackney and Helen Chappelle – she was my writing instructor when I took an Online Class. Wonderful author, better person. So funny and interesting.

Q. Do you have any little quirks when you are writing?

Other than listening to loud, fast tempo music, not that I can think of. No favorite place to write, no favorite pens – I only have the laptop so that’s were I write.

Q. Who do you think you are?

:blink: I guess you mean in my writing. I would think the character I most want to be/or see myself most as would be the lead character in my fantasy story.

Q. Have you ever thought when a hearse goes by that you might be the next to die?

No, I don’t think about dying. When it happens it does. I don’t expect to die anytime soon so it does not preoccupy me.

Q. Who was your favourite author when you were young?

Easy – J.R.R. Tolkien

Q. If you could have one wish, would you give it to me?

No sorry, I’m going to be greedy, if I had one wish right now, I would use it. We haven’t had an easy time with having a child so I would ask for us to have two happy healthy children.

Q. What’s your favourite board game?

Battleships. When I was a kid it was not electronic.

Q. Is there anything you’d like to plug?

Nothing really comes to mind – but thanks for asking me to do this interview.